[Elecraft] Mushy CW in QSK at 38 wpm and above...

[Gerry Hull]

Hey Jim,

I'm a contester... so go much above 45 and the rate starts to drop... but
when I have a serious pile, I go from 38 to 40 or 42.  So having a good
sounding K3 is important.  I used to be a QRQ rag chewer in my younger days
-- wish I had a rig as nice as a K3 back then; 60 to 70 was my enjoyable
range.  I had an Al Helfrick CMOS CW Keyboard.

I popped the front end my personal K3 attempting to do an in-band mult
 (400' sep of antennas, but it did not matter) ; so it's off the Elecraft
to get fixed, and to get the synth!!

>From the start of this thread: I was using my friend, Cary, VE4EA's K3,
which does not have the new synth.  I was remote, but using N1MM and the
KUSB.  We will get his set up properly as well.

73, Gerry W1VE / VE1RM


On Mon, Jan 11, 2016 at 4:13 PM, Jim Sheldon <w0eb at cox.net> wrote:

> Oh yes,
> The synthesizer upgrade isn't cheap, especially if you have two receivers
> (you have to upgrade the synth for each receiver, as one new one can't
> coexist with one old one, but from experience, I've found the keying sounds
> much cleaner with the new synthesizer, even at slower speeds and it
> actually helped clean up the dits on my bugs.  The bugs sounded so much
> different (better) with the new synthesizers, I had to totally readjust
> them.
>
> If you are a really serious QRQ or even medium QRQ (40-50 wpm) the
> synthesizer upgrade IMO is a must do.  Unless you are really screaming
> along at 70+, you may even forget that QRQ mode ever existed in the K3 and
> as previously stated, you won't have to lose your QRQ operation to run
> split or use the RIT at around 50 and below. (Split and RIT automatically
> turn QRQ mode off, at least in an unmodified K3.)
>
> Jim - W0EB
>
>
> "Clipped dits" is a good description. Upgrading the synth(s) will fix
>> this, even with QRQ mode turned off. In fact it's so good, that I don't
>> even use QRQ mode anymore so there is no change when RIT/XIT or Split
>> modes are engaged. You'll also find that the K3 now accurately follows an
>> external keyer, whereas before the 'clipping' was evident at higher
>> speeds.
>>
>> 73, Dale WA8SRA
>>
>>
>
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